This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.
Poker has become increasingly competitive in recent years.
The average player is more skilled than ever before, the rake can be high, and most of the "easy money" fishy players that pros like myself have thrived on, are harder to find.
So is there still good money to be made in poker these days?
The answer is yes, but it does require a bit of effort on your part.
But much more importantly, you need to know the right strategy.
In this article, you will learn how to actually make money from poker, even if you’re a complete beginner.
There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get right into it.
1. Learn the Basic Tight and Aggressive Poker Strategy
If you want to make money from poker consistently, your best bet is to learn the basics of a tight and aggressive (TAG) poker strategy.
This is something that I have been preaching for years and I built my entire professional poker career using this simple strategy.
TAG strategy works well in most low stakes poker games because it exploits the weaknesses of the majority of the player pool you’ll be playing against.
In poker, the best playstyle is usually the opposite of the one that your opponents are using.
In most low stakes games, players tend to play way too many hands, and they tend to play them quite passively, both preflop and post flop.
So the best way to defeat these players is to employ the opposite strategy, i.e. being very selective with the hands you choose to play, and playing them aggressively.
The TAG strategy consists of 3 key components:
A) Only playing strong starting hands
This means only playing the top 15% of all starting hands if you’re playing in a full ring game, and around 20% of all starting hands if you’re playing 6-max.
So this means hands like: K♠K♥, A♥K♣, A♦Q♠, 9♣9♥, 7♥7♣, J♦T♦ and several others.
For the full charts of exactly what hands I suggest you play, grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
Full ring tables usually have 9 players, while 6-max tables have only 6 players at the table. Charts with what hands to play for both games are included in my free guide.
Full ring is the norm for live cash games, while 6-max is the most popular format if you’re playing poker online.
The reason to play tighter ranges with more opponents at the table is obvious: the more players you are up against, the stronger hands you need to play profitably.
B) Play most hands in position
The number of hands you can play profitably will depend on many factors, namely your table position.
The closer you are to the dealer button, the more hands you can play profitably.
That’s because you’re more likely to be playing in position post flop when you’re closer to the dealer button (more about playing in position below).
C) Play aggressively
If you take only one thing away from this article, let it be this: winning poker is aggressive poker.
Playing aggressively allows you to win “more than your fair share”, either by value betting your strong hands, or by pushing your opponents out of pots with a well-timed bluff.
This means you should always consider betting and raising as opposed to defaulting to checking and calling.
For example:
You raise preflop with A♦Q♠ and the flop comes 8♥4♠2♥
You should make a bet here the vast majority of the time. This is a hard concept for many beginners to understand.
We have nothing all! Why should we bet?
Answer: Because they will fold most of the time.
Your hand does not matter. It's irrelevent.
My professional poker career really took off once I fully internalized this simple point.
By following these 3 simple principles, you will have no trouble winning against weaker competition.
There’s obviously a lot more to winning poker, but these principle will give you a solid foundation and set you on the right track.
As you get more experience, you can start mixing up your playstyle with a loose and aggressive (LAG) playstyle.
LAG strategy involves playing wider ranges preflop, but still playing in an aggressive manner to put maximum pressure on your opponents.
The consequence of playing wider ranges is the fact that you will miss the flop a bit more often, so you need to be comfortable with playing in more marginal situations.
This means knowing how to win an occasional pot even without a particularly strong hand.
But when you’re first starting out, your best bet is to keep things simple, play tight preflop ranges and avoid getting involved in a lot of marginal spots altogether.
Through the rest of the article, we’ll analyze the TAG strategy in more detail, so you know exactly how to start winning right away.
I also show you exactly how to use a TAG poker strategy in a recent video, if you prefer that:
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2. Only Play Strong Starting Hands Preflop
One of the most common amateur poker mistakes is playing too many hands.
So if you want to instantly improve your poker results, your best bet is to simply play less hands.
This may seem counterintuitive to a lot of beginner players. After all, how can you expect to win more by playing less?
There are a few reasons why playing less hands is actually more profitable than playing just about any random card.
In no-limit hold’em, not all starting hands are created equal.
This is not rocket science by any means, but a lot of players are under the wrong impression that every hand is a potential winner.
But again, this is just not the case.
Some cards simply have a better chance of connecting with the flop than others, i.e. they have a better chance of making strong post flop combinations.
Strong aces for example.
Let’s look at a trashy hand like J♥2♥ as an example.
Let’s look at a trashy hand like J♥2♥ as an example.
Aside from the potential of making a mediocre flush, this hand has very little going for it in terms of post flop playability.
J♥2♥ will flop a top pair only 8% of the time, and even then, you still have an awful kicker to worry about.
A kicker is the card in your hand that doesn’t help you make a certain hand combination, but can often determine the winner of the hand if both players end up having the same combination.
For example, if both players have a pair of Jacks, the player with the stronger kicker wins the hand.
If you play J♥2♥, your hand is dominated by all the stronger Jx hands.
A dominated hand is the one that’s unlikely to win against a stronger hand due to a weaker kicker.
You always want your hand to dominate your opponents’, instead of the other way around.
This is why it’s best to avoid playing hands with weak kickers altogether.
Another common amateur poker mistake is overestimating the chances of actually making a strong combination like a flush.
If you have a suited hand, the chance of flopping a flush is less than 1%!
You have a better chance of flopping a flush draw (11%), but this is also far from likely.
So playing a suited hands just for the prospect of making a flush is a bad strategy that’s likely to cost you money over the long run.
Check out my other article on the 4 bad poker hands you should absolutely avoid playing altogether.
So What Actually Makes a Good Starting Hand in Poker?
1) High cards are better than low cards because they can make stronger pairs.
Play AJ instead of T8.
2) Connected cards are stronger unconnected cards because they can make a straight.
Play 98 instead of 96.
3) Suited cards are stronger than offsuit cards because they can make a flush.
Play A♦3♦ instead of A♦3♣
A good starting poker hands will have a combination of these traits, and ideally it will have all 3.
For example, Ace-King suited has all 3 listed factors because it can make strong pairs, as well as the nuts straights and flushes.
The nuts refers to the strongest possible combination on a given board.
With this in mind, here’s an overview of starting hands you should play:
A) Pocket pairs (pocket Aces through pocket Twos)
B) Broadway hands (strong face cards that can make the strongest possible straight, like A♣Q♦ or K♥J♥)
C) Suited Aces (AKs through A2s)
D) Suited connectors (like 9♦8♦ or 7♠6♠)
These hands make up roughly the top 20% of all starting hands in no-limit hold’em. The rest is trash and should be thrown away.
By the way I have written entire articles on how to play each of these hands like suited connectors, suited aces etc.
This is just a rough overview to give you a general idea about decent starting hands.
You can (and should) deviate from this based on what’s actually happening at your table.
Sometimes you should play an even tighter range than the one outlined above, and sometimes you can drastically widen your ranges, based on your table position and other factors.
And once again, you can find the full charts on what hands to play in my free poker cheat sheet below.
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3. Play Most Hands in Position to Get an Edge
The second key aspect of the TAG strategy is playing most hands in position, which gives you a huge edge over your opponents.
Playing in position means being the last player to act in a betting round.
Here’s why you should aim to play most hands in position:
A) To gain more information
If you’re the last player to act, you get to see what your opponents do first, while they have no idea what you’re about to do.
Poker is a game of incomplete information, and the player with the informational advantage will come out on top more often than not.
B) To control the pot size
If you’re playing in position, you get to dictate the size of the pot.
Example:
You raise with 9♦9♠, they check the flop of J♦7♠4♦, you bet and they call.
They check to you on the turn of T♥
You can now check behind, controlling the size of the pot and giving yourself a free shot to hit your inside straight draw (if you are currently behind).
In other words, win/win for you.
You have all the options when you are playing in position as I discuss in my 2nd book, Modern Small Stakes.
If you have a strong value hand, you can bet or raise to inflate the pot size. If you have a medium strength hand or a drawing hand, you can just call or check behind to keep the pot size more manageable.
C) To bluff more effectively
Due to the positional disadvantage, your opponents won’t be as likely to fight for pots when they are playing out of position.
This means you can often push them out of pots with a well-timed bluff every time they show signs of weakness (like checking to you, for example).
D) To realize your equity
Your hand equity simply refers to the percentage chance of winning the pot if players took their hand to showdown.
When playing in position, you get to realize your equity more often, because you have a better chance of getting to a (cheap) showdown.
Conversely, you can deny your opponents their hand equity by trying to push them out of pots with a well-timed aggression.
So How Do You Play More Hands in Position?
You simply open-raise more hands in late table positions (namely the cutoff and the button).
The closer you are to the dealer button, the better the chance of playing in position post flop.
The closer you are to the dealer button, the better the chance of playing in position post flop.
When you’re playing on the button in particular, you will always have positional advantage post flop. This is why the button will be the most profitable seat for you by far.
I talk about this in much greater detail in my popular article, 21 Texas Holdem tips the pros don't want you to know.
Chances are, you’d be surprised by how much more money you win on the button compared to other table positions.
Due to the positional advantage, you can open-raise a lot more hands in late positions than the recommended 20% or 15% average.
When playing on the button, you can often get away with playing as many as 40%, or even 50% of all starting hands.
That’s because you only have 2 players left to act behind you, meaning you don’t have to have a monster hand to play it profitably.
If your hand is even remotely playable post flop, chances are that you can open-raise it on the button.
Often enough, you will just take down the pot preflop if the players in the blinds fold their hands.
When you open-raise from late table positions (the cutoff, the button, and the small blind) with the intention of taking down the pot preflop, this is known as blind stealing.
Blind stealing can be a very profitable strategy, and the best part is that it’s relatively easy to implement in your game.
Check out my ultimate blind stealing cheat sheet to learn how to make easy money preflop.
One of the very common leaks among amateur poker players is the fact that they’re not playing nearly as aggressively as they should on the button.
TAG strategy is all about using the power of position to your advantage, so don’t be afraid to loosen it up in late table positions.
You can expand your open-raising range to include most Ax hands, suited one-gappers or two-gappers, suited Kings, offsuit connectors and so on.
Here are a few example hands you can open-raise with on the button:
A♥5♠
T♦7♦
J♣T♦
K♥6♥
Q♣9♣
You get the picture. If your hand is not complete and utter trash, chances are that you can play it on the button.
Playing any of these hands in early table positions would likely be -EV, but they’re perfectly fine to play on the button.
Take this with a grain of salt, of course.
If you’re up against very aggressive players in the blinds who are likely to 3-bet (i.e. re-raise) against your stealing attempts, you should exercise more caution and open-raise with tighter ranges.
But in most low stakes games, a lot of players won’t defend their blinds with the right frequency, and they will not 3-bet bluff you as often as they should.
So upping your level of aggression in late table positions is a must if you want to get the most out of your positional advantage.
4. Always Enter the Pot With a Raise
If you are the first player to enter the pot, you should always do so with an open-raise.
Rough rule of thumb:
Raise it 3x or 4x the big blind. So in a $2/$5 game, make your raise to $15 or $20.
A lot of amateur poker players make the mistake of limping into the pot instead, but this “strategy” often ends up backfiring.
To limp in means to just pay the big blind instead of making an open-raise.
Here’s why you should always enter the pot with a raise instead of open-limping:
A) To build up the pot
If you have a strong hand, your best bet is to build up the pot with it as soon as possible.
The bigger the pot you build up preflop, the easier it is to ship the rest of your stack in the middle post flop.
Limping in with strong hands means leaving money at the table.
B) To discourage multiway pots
A multiway pot is a pot with more than two players involved.
If you limp in, you’re inviting other players to limp behind you, which can often lead to big multiway pots.
This makes it harder for you to win the hand, as every additional player involved will have some chunk of equity against you, even if they have some weak, nonsense hand.
Ideally, you want to get to the flop against only one, maybe two opponents, especially if you have a strong hand.
C) To gain initiative
If you are the preflop aggressor, you have the opportunity to continue the aggression in the form of a flop continuation bet (or c-bet for short).
C-bets are usually profitable, so you should make a c-bet on most flops unless there’s a good reason not to do so.
When you open-limp, on the other hand, you can’t make a c-bet on the flop, which will make it harder for you to win the hand.
Unlike open-limping, limping behind can be a viable strategy at times. I actually used this strategy in super low stakes games to create some of the highest winnings of all-time.
To limp behind means to limp in after another player has already limped in.
Limping behind can be a good idea if you have some sort of a speculative hand that prefers to see a cheap flop.
For example:
Hands like small pocket pairs or suited connectors are good speculative hands that can potentially make a lot of strong combinations, but you don’t necessarily want to invest a lot of money with them until you see the flop.
So if I have a hand like 4♦4♥ on the button and 3 people have already limped, I will sometimes just limp as well.
An alternative to limping behind is to just make an open-raise anyway.
When you open-raise when another player limps into the pot, this is known as the isolation-raise (or iso-raise for short).
As the name suggests, the goal of the isolation raise is to isolate the open-limper, and try to play a heads-up pot against them post flop.
A heads-up pot is a pot with only two players involved.
In most cases, the open-limper is likely to be a weaker player, so you want to isolate them and take advantage of their numerous post flop mistakes.
These mistakes include overcalling, overvaluing certain hand combinations, giving off their hand strength based on their betting patterns and so on.
These mistakes include overcalling, overvaluing certain hand combinations, giving off their hand strength based on their betting patterns and so on.
The standard isolation raise size you should use is 3 big blinds plus an additional big blind per limper.
So 4 big blinds for one limper, 5 big blinds for two limpers and so on.
You can bump it up an additional big blind if you’re playing out of position, or if you have a strong hand and don’t mind building up the pot as much as possible preflop.
This strategy works especially well in order to crush small stakes poker games.
Example Hand
Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt A♦Q♦s in the SB (small blind). A loose and passive player open-limps UTG (under the gun). MP (middle position) limps behind.
You: ???
You should iso-raise to 6 big blinds.
This is a textbook spot where making a big iso-raise is likely to be the best play.
You have a very strong hand that can get called by a number of weaker hands, especially when you’re up against recreational players.
You can get called by virtually all the Ax hands, as well as some Qx hands like KQ, QJ, or QT, all of which you completely dominate.
As for the iso-raise sizing, you make it 3 big blinds, plus 2 big blinds for the two limpers.
Finally, you can add one more big blind, as you’ll be playing the hand out of position.
So you want to charge your opponents a premium if they want the benefit of playing in position against you post flop.
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For example:
You raise it up with A♥Q♥ and you miss the flop: T♣8♥4♦
You bet and an aggressive player raises you!
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5. Have a Healthy Bankroll
Even if you follow all the above tips to a tee, you’re not guaranteed to win every time you play.
Poker has a short term luck element involved, meaning you can sometimes lose despite playing perfectly.
This has to do with something we call variance.
Simply put, variance in poker measures the difference between how much you expect to earn versus how much you actually earn over a certain sample size.
Simple example:
Let’s say we bet on the outcome of a coinflip and I give you 2:1 odds.
Heads, you win $2, tails, you give me $1.
This is obviously a profitable bet for you, since the odds on a fair coin are exactly 50:50.
But let’s say I get lucky and win 8 out of 10 times (it comes tails 8 out of 10 times).
In this scenario, you lose $4, even though you are expected to win $5 on average.
In other words, you’ve experienced something called: negative variance.
And if you ever want to become a poker pro, you are going to have to learn to make peace with it.
But if I were to offer you the same bet again, you should take it, as the odds are clearly in your favour.
If we keep playing, eventually I’ll end up broke, and you’ll take all my money, and all the luck in the world is not going to help me.
That’s because my bet has negative expected value, and your bet has a positive expected value (it’s +EV).
The odds in poker work the same way.
If you keep putting your money in with a mathematical advantage, you are going to win over the long run.
However, your opponents can still get lucky against you in any given session, giving you a string of bad beats.
So how much you win or lose over a small sample size is not entirely within your control.
This is where having a proper bankroll comes into play.
Your poker bankroll is a specific amount of money you specifically set aside to play poker with.
Your poker bankroll is a specific amount of money you specifically set aside to play poker with.
You use your poker bankroll to buy into cash games or tournaments, and you don’t use the same money for other purposes.
The point of a bankroll is to reduce the risk of going broke due to negative short term variance.
A healthy bankroll will give you a peace of mind to keep playing your best despite how you’re running session to session.
Without a bankroll, you would constantly need to reload every time you run out of funds.
So even if you’re the best poker player at your table, it’s not going to mean much if you constantly end up going broke.
Of course, if you’re just playing poker recreationally, this may not be a big deal.
You can simply reload and add more money every time you run out.
But if you do it right the first time, it could be the last time you ever need to deposit money into your account.
Winning poker players should always take money out of the site, instead of the other way around.
As a general rule, it’s advised to have at least 30 full buyins if you’re playing cash games, and at least 100 buyins for tournaments.
For example, if you’re playing NL10 online (cash games with a $10 buyin), you should have no less than $300 in your account.
The reason you should have way more buyins for tournaments is the fact that poker tournaments inherently have more variance built into the format.
This means you can encounter prolonged stretches where you’re not able to make any significant cashouts, even if you’re playing well.
Of course, the upside is that you only need to win one tournament to really skyrocket your bankroll.
Check out my full bankroll management guide to learn when to move up (or down) the stakes.
It’s worth mentioning that having a proper bankroll only works if you’re a winning poker player to begin with.
If you’re currently a losing player, the biggest bankroll in the world is not going to help you.
It will just take you longer to eventually go broke.
So when you’re first starting out, your primary goal should be improving your game and eliminating common leaks that are costing you money.
Fortunately, becoming a winning poker player can be achieved with the right know-how and a bit of discipline.
For more, see my recent video on the 9 reasons why poker pros seem to always be winning.
Can You Actually Make Money From Poker? - Summary
You don’t necessarily need to study advanced poker strategy all day long in order to be a profitable long term winner in this game.
All you have to do is learn some simple techniques that work surprisingly well in most low stakes poker games.
To sum up, here’s how you can actually make money from poker, even if you’re a complete beginner.
1. Learn the tight and aggressive (TAG) strategy.
TAG strategy works like a charm in most low stakes games because it exploits the weaknesses of the majority of the player pool you’re likely to play against.
The key aspect of the TAG strategy is only playing strong starting hands (preferably in position), and playing them aggressively, both preflop and post flop.
2. Only play strong starting hands
By only playing strong starting hands, you get an automatic edge over your opponents who play just about any random hand.
You should only play around the top 20% of all starting hands in no-limit hold’em.
This includes pocket pairs, broadway hands, suited Aces, and suited connectors. The rest is trash and should be thrown away.
3. Play most hands in position
Playing in position means being the last player to act in a betting round.
Playing in position gives you an informational advantage and lets you dictate the price of the pot. It also allows you to realize your equity more often, as well as deny your opponent’s their own hand equity.
4. Enter most pots with a raise
Being the preflop aggressor is statistically more profitable than being the preflop caller.
By being the preflop aggressor, you gain the initiative and the range advantage. You’re also discouraging multiway pots and building up the pot right away with your strong value hands.
5. Have a healthy bankroll
Poker has a short term luck element involved, meaning you can sometimes lose despite playing perfectly.
Having a big bankroll allows you to keep playing your best despite how you’re running session to session, and it eliminates the risk of going broke due to negative variance.
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This article was written by Fran Ferlan
Poker player, writer and coach
Specializing in live and online cash games
For coaching enquiries, contact Fran at fran.redline@gmail.com
Or apply directly for poker coaching with Fran, right here
Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $2000+ per month in small/mid stakes games, grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
